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The Hunter Hurricanes men’s and women’s teams will return to the Australian Water Polo League from Wednesday with five games played over as many days. 2020 national league was canceled then last season was not continued due to COVID. The Hurricanes kick off their 2022 campaign against Cronulla Wednesday at the Peter Montgomery Pool. They will then play UNSW Wests at the Ashfield Aquatic Center on Thursday, UTS Balmain at the Drummoyne Swimming Pool on Friday and Drummoyne at the Dawn Fraser Baths on Saturday before hosting Sydney University at Queens Wharf on Sunday. Both teams rely on local talent. Neither have played since the Sydney Super League finals on December 11 and 12. The men will play for third place and the women will fight for fifth place when the Sydney Super League final is played on February 12. Hunter men’s coach Daniel Marsden believes that a strong start over the next five days will set the Hurricanes up for a strong national campaign. “We’ve been working hard over the past few years to bring a very young team together and we’ve started to get very competitive with everyone, especially in Sydney,” said Marsden. “If we can play reasonably well in the first game and get a win there, we’ll face Wests, who’s obviously still one of the favorites to win the national title, so that gives us a kind of springboard to raise the level and get there trying to get our consistency back to where we were at the end of last year against a good team. Then hopefully we can play very strong games against Balmain, Drummoyne and Sydney Uni and that will set us up for the rest of the National League because that’s when we play the Interstate teams. The league is contested by nine teams. Fremantle and UWA Torpedoes withdrew after Western Australia indefinitely suspended reopening the border. After a busy start, the league will return to its traditional home Hurricanes women’s coach Renae Burdack, said his squad is in a rebuilding phase: “We lost a lot of players, even from Sydney Super League we lost six squads, so we’ll really focus on development,” said Burdack. “A couple of girls are only 16 and the rest of the team is quite young and inexperienced and late teens, early 20s. It’s not going to be about scoring goals or winning games, it’s going to be learning and developing.” In that respect, it is really exciting. While young people aren’t improving in a flat line and it’s going to be a bumpy road, we expect real improvements as the season progresses.” Experienced goalkeeper and captain Emily Grellman will play a key role. “Emily is an outstanding player and also a huge influence on the rest of the team,” Burdack said. “She also has a really cool head on her shoulders and is patient with the developing players.” IN THE NEWS: Our journalists work hard to bring local, up-to-date news to the community. To continue accessing our trusted content:
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LEADER: Captain and goaltender Emily Grellman will be a key player for the Hunter Hurricanes women in the 2022 Australian Water Polo League. Image: Jonathan Carroll
The Hunter Hurricanes men’s and women’s teams will return to the Australian Water Polo League from Wednesday with five games played over as many days.
2020 national league was canceled then last season was not continued due to COVID.
The Hurricanes kick off their 2022 campaign against Cronulla Wednesday at the Peter Montgomery Pool
They then play UNSW Wests at Ashfield Aquatic Center on Thursday, UTS Balmain at Drummoyne Swimming Pool on Friday, Drummoyne at the Dawn Fraser Baths on Saturday before hosting Sydney University at Queens Wharf on Sunday.
Both teams rely on local talent. Both have not played since the Sydney Super League finals on 11th and 12th December. The men will play for third place and the women for fifth place when the Sydney Super League final is played on February 12.
Hunter men’s coach Daniel Marsden believes a strong start over the next five days will set the Hurricanes up for a strong national campaign.
“We’ve been working hard over the past few years to bring a very young team together and we’ve started to get very competitive with everyone, especially in Sydney,” said Marsden.
“If we can play reasonably well in the first game and get a win there, we’ll face Wests, who’s obviously still one of the favorites to win the national title, so that gives us a kind of springboard to raise the level and get there trying to get our consistency back to where we were at the end of last year against a good team.
“From there hopefully we can have very strong games against Balmain, Drummoyne and Sydney Uni and that will then set us up for the rest of the domestic league because we’re then playing the interstate teams.”
The league is contested by nine teams. Fremantle and UWA torpedoes withdrew after Western Australia indefinitely suspended reopening the border.
After the busy start, the league will return to the traditional home-away format, with the rest of the draw set to be released in the coming weeks.
Hurricanes women’s coach Renae Burdack said his squad is in a rebuilding phase.
“We lost a lot of players, even from the Sydney Super League we lost six squad members, so we’re going to really focus on development,” said Burdack.
“Some girls are only 16 and the rest of the team is quite young and inexperienced and late teens, early 20s. It’s not going to be about scoring goals or winning games, it’s going to be learning and developing.
“It’s really exciting in that regard. While youngsters don’t improve along a flat line and it will be a bumpy road, we expect real improvement as the season progresses.”
Experienced goalkeeper and captain Emily Grellman will play a key role.
“Emily is an outstanding player and also has a great influence on the rest of the team,” said Burdack.
“She also has a really cool head on her shoulders and is patient with the developing players.”
Our journalists work hard to bring local, breaking news to the community. To continue accessing our trusted content:
